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If you could change one thing about every movie, what would it be? — Page 2

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paja said:

TFA: Give Phasma way more screen time.
TLJ: All of the aliens don’t speak English.

Is Welsh okay for you, mate ? 😉

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TPM-make Anakin 17 or 18 …AOTC -No Yoda with Lightsaber , I actively seek out fan edits that omit this …ROTS -no Yoda/Palpatine duel , I always thought these 2 characters had advanced beyond the need for sabers .ANH-put back in the deleted Biggs scenes . ESB-not a damn thing if it is the original cut , it is perfect to me .ROTJ- go with the original plan and have the Ewoks be Wookiees . TFA-a little more background on the political situation in the galaxy …what happened to Coruscant ? TLJ-put back in the deleted scene of Luke mourning Han .

https://screamsinthevoid.deviantart.com/

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TMP - Age up Anakin to about 17/18.
AOTC - Give Obi-Wan another pupil, who is also tempted towards the dark side.
ROTS - Make it look like Anakin and the other pupil die about midway through the movie, with proto-Vader (mask, but no life support suit) taking his place.

ANH - Fix the Death Star plans graphics.
ESB - Include a line from Lando about Han endangering the people of Bespin (thanks, RougeLeader)
ROTJ - Replace the Second Death Star with a skyhook above a volcanic planet (basically Mustafar).

R1 - No puns from Vader.
Solo - No imperial officer giving Han his surname.

TFA - No Starkiller Base.
TLJ - No green milk scene.

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BedeHistory731 said:

TMP - Age up Anakin to about 17/18.
AOTC - Give Obi-Wan another pupil, who is also tempted towards the dark side.
ROTS - Make it look like Anakin and the other pupil die about midway through the movie, with proto-Vader (mask, but no life support suit) taking his place.

YES to all of these, though I don’t think “no life support suit” is necessary for act 3 EpIII Vader.

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ChainsawAsh said:

BedeHistory731 said:

TMP - Age up Anakin to about 17/18.
AOTC - Give Obi-Wan another pupil, who is also tempted towards the dark side.
ROTS - Make it look like Anakin and the other pupil die about midway through the movie, with proto-Vader (mask, but no life support suit) taking his place.

YES to all of these, though I don’t think “no life support suit” is necessary for act 3 EpIII Vader.

I could go either way with that. My thinking about that final duel on Mustafar would be to have Obi-Wan fighting pre-suit Vader (mask with vocal distortion, but no breathing sounds or extensive cybernetics). This Vader, who is never linked to Anakin other than saying he destroyed him, would fall to his near-death onto the embankment of a lava river. This injury would render him quadriplegic (per the technical commentaries), leading to the immolation and the necessity for the suit. It could also be a way for the “Obi-Wan once thought as you do” line to make sense, as Obi-Wan tries to reach out to Vader and Vader chooses to fall to his death (I got the idea here). It’s like poetry, it rhymes! 😉

If we go with the “he’s already wearing the suit” option, perhaps he fought the other pupil and they both sustained substantial injuries before Palpatine intervened. With it left ambiguous who truly lived, Vader would seek out Obi-Wan and Padme. Padme would plead with this new man, trying to persuade him to come back to the light. He tries to kill her before Obi-Wan intervenes and starts the fight. Vader could also be immolated again here or trapped in something to allow Obi-Wan and Padme to escape.

Keeping Vader a mystery man in Episode III should have been a goal of the prequels (same with keeping Yoda off-screen and allowing Padme to survive the prequels on Alderaan with Leia). I like it when fanedits cut out Vader’s name and suit appearance from the film.

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BedeHistory731 said:

If we go with the “he’s already wearing the suit” option, perhaps he fought the other pupil and they both sustained substantial injuries before Palpatine intervened. With it left ambiguous who truly lived, Vader would seek out Obi-Wan

Yep, that’s pretty much how I’ve always wished it had gone.

I don’t think it ever would have been possible to do the prequels while keeping Yoda’s appearance a secret, though. And that’s not a big enough reveal in Empire that the audience knowing who Yoda is before Luke causes that much of a problem IMO.

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ChainsawAsh said:

BedeHistory731 said:

If we go with the “he’s already wearing the suit” option, perhaps he fought the other pupil and they both sustained substantial injuries before Palpatine intervened. With it left ambiguous who truly lived, Vader would seek out Obi-Wan

Yep, that’s pretty much how I’ve always wished it had gone.

I don’t think it ever would have been possible to do the prequels while keeping Yoda’s appearance a secret, though. And that’s not a big enough reveal in Empire that the audience knowing who Yoda is before Luke causes that much of a problem IMO.

Indeed. It gives the whole scene a nice bit of situational irony, as we know that it’s Yoda but Luke doesn’t. Had the Prequels preserved Yoda’s sense of humor and general OT characterization, it’d be kind of funny.

However, I’ve still thought of ways to do the Prequels without Yoda appearing (he’d be mentioned a bunch, but never manifest in the flesh). These include:

-he’s exiled himself away from a corrupted Jedi Order, with Obi-Wan as his last pupil
-he was exiled by the Jedi Order for not siding with their current policies (which, if we’re talking release order viewing, should give viewers a perspective on the latter days of the order), with Obi-Wan taking his side in policy matters (a la Qui-Gon/Dooku in the Prequels)

Of course, have it be so that only Obi-Wan knows where he is. That way he can call him up via Force skype.

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The prequels showing how Anakin becomes Vader make for an interesting case of dramatic irony in the classical mold. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing at all.

I do think it would be cool if, instead of Anakin having literalistic visions of Padmé dying in childbirth, he had more symbolic ones of suited Darth Vader striking her down. That way, first-time viewers watching chronologically would get a reveal of their own, comparable to that of “I am your father” from watching in release order.

“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”

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I’ve never liked “Obi-Wan had a second apprentice, one named Vader the other Anakin, both turn evil, and then one dies while the other secretly survives.

It feels awfully contrived, and distorts the meaning of the PT to benefit the plot twist in Empire. The PT is all about Anakin’s turn to the dark side as a parallel to Luke’s resistance to the dark side, and both are symbols of the galaxy - in the PT, the Republic falls to the Empire, in the OT, the Rebels resist the Empire.

Removing Anakin’s proper turn to evil is (imo) the equivalent of removing Luke standing up to the Emperor. Instead, we’d just show Vader rising and overthrowing the Emperor, leaving Luke’s story in limbo, until a plot twist in Episode 8 reveals Luke did the right thing. It doesn’t work. Likewise, adding a second apprentice even if to support Obi-Wan’s lie would be the equivalent of adding in a new character (Luke’s sister?) for the sole purpose of having us wonder who will redeem Vader.

Now, this is all implying Lucas’ vision of the PT. It could have been set from an entirely new character’s adventures / struggles and not Anakin, in which case maybe he could have showed up in the first film and then been seemingly killed. But as long as the trilogy is about Anakin’s fall or Obi-Wan’s failure, I don’t think you can thematically justify keeping the plot twist.

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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OutboundFlight said:

I’ve never liked “Obi-Wan had a second apprentice, one named Vader the other Anakin, both turn evil, and then one dies while the other secretly survives.

It feels awfully contrived, and distorts the meaning of the PT to benefit the plot twist in Empire. The PT is all about Anakin’s turn to the dark side as a parallel to Luke’s resistance to the dark side, and both are symbols of the galaxy - in the PT, the Republic falls to the Empire, in the OT, the Rebels resist the Empire.

Removing Anakin’s proper turn to evil is (imo) the equivalent of removing Luke standing up to the Emperor. Instead, we’d just show Vader rising and overthrowing the Emperor, leaving Luke’s story in limbo, until a plot twist in Episode 8 reveals Luke did the right thing. It doesn’t work. Likewise, adding a second apprentice even if to support Obi-Wan’s lie would be the equivalent of adding in a new character (Luke’s sister?) for the sole purpose of having us wonder who will redeem Vader.

Now, this is all implying Lucas’ vision of the PT. It could have been set from an entirely new character’s adventures / struggles and not Anakin, in which case maybe he could have showed up in the first film and then been seemingly killed. But as long as the trilogy is about Anakin’s fall or Obi-Wan’s failure, I don’t think you can thematically justify keeping the plot twist.

A good reason fanedits of the PT should be made with the intent of dampening the flaws/improving the strengths of the PT rather than ironing out the continuity between the two trilogies. Myths of old have internal inconsistencies, as do modern ones; we should embrace and work within that condition rather than fight against it.

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OutboundFlight said:

I’ve never liked “Obi-Wan had a second apprentice, one named Vader the other Anakin, both turn evil, and then one dies while the other secretly survives.

It feels awfully contrived, and distorts the meaning of the PT to benefit the plot twist in Empire. The PT is all about Anakin’s turn to the dark side as a parallel to Luke’s resistance to the dark side, and both are symbols of the galaxy - in the PT, the Republic falls to the Empire, in the OT, the Rebels resist the Empire.

Removing Anakin’s proper turn to evil is (imo) the equivalent of removing Luke standing up to the Emperor. Instead, we’d just show Vader rising and overthrowing the Emperor, leaving Luke’s story in limbo, until a plot twist in Episode 8 reveals Luke did the right thing. It doesn’t work. Likewise, adding a second apprentice even if to support Obi-Wan’s lie would be the equivalent of adding in a new character (Luke’s sister?) for the sole purpose of having us wonder who will redeem Vader.

Now, this is all implying Lucas’ vision of the PT. It could have been set from an entirely new character’s adventures / struggles and not Anakin, in which case maybe he could have showed up in the first film and then been seemingly killed. But as long as the trilogy is about Anakin’s fall or Obi-Wan’s failure, I don’t think you can thematically justify keeping the plot twist.

Well first off, neither one would be named Vader until after we see the suit. The second pupil character can be a natural part of the story from TPM, say Obi-Wan’s apprentice/partner before Anakin shows up. You already have the seeds of a rivalry and resentment between Anakin and the second apprentice, which can both fuel their turn. It wouldn’t just aid the mystery, but it would also add a bit of a familial dynamic to the main characters (Obi-Wan, Anakin, and the other apprentice; with Padme to the side). That would make the fall all the more tragic and kind of flip the OT’s themes (instead of the “rebel family” coming together, it’s the “Jedi family” falling apart).

I don’t think it’s contrived at all. We can see both apprentices fall in a way that satisfies the parallel to Luke standing up to the Emperor. You can imply that they both want to serve Sidious, without actually showing them bow to Sidious and receive the name.

You do bring up a good point about the “Obi-Wan’s failure” theme, as he should have been the main character of the Prequels. We see through him how he tried to train these pupils and failed, fuelling the fall of the Jedi and his exile to Tatooine to care for the offspring of Anakin (the other pupil would have been childless). It fits within GL’s general structure of the Prequels to center on Kenobi and you can work the story in a way that preserves the ESB twist.

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DuracellEnergizer said:

OutboundFlight said:

I’ve never liked “Obi-Wan had a second apprentice, one named Vader the other Anakin, both turn evil, and then one dies while the other secretly survives.

It feels awfully contrived, and distorts the meaning of the PT to benefit the plot twist in Empire. The PT is all about Anakin’s turn to the dark side as a parallel to Luke’s resistance to the dark side, and both are symbols of the galaxy - in the PT, the Republic falls to the Empire, in the OT, the Rebels resist the Empire.

Removing Anakin’s proper turn to evil is (imo) the equivalent of removing Luke standing up to the Emperor. Instead, we’d just show Vader rising and overthrowing the Emperor, leaving Luke’s story in limbo, until a plot twist in Episode 8 reveals Luke did the right thing. It doesn’t work. Likewise, adding a second apprentice even if to support Obi-Wan’s lie would be the equivalent of adding in a new character (Luke’s sister?) for the sole purpose of having us wonder who will redeem Vader.

Now, this is all implying Lucas’ vision of the PT. It could have been set from an entirely new character’s adventures / struggles and not Anakin, in which case maybe he could have showed up in the first film and then been seemingly killed. But as long as the trilogy is about Anakin’s fall or Obi-Wan’s failure, I don’t think you can thematically justify keeping the plot twist.

A good reason fanedits of the PT should be made with the intent of dampening the flaws/improving the strengths of the PT rather than ironing out the continuity between the two trilogies. Myths of old have internal inconsistencies, as do modern ones; we should embrace and work within that condition rather than fight against it.

I just like having the spoilers of the OT intact, which would probably necessitate a “3-in-1” edit stuck between ESB and ROTJ in viewing order.

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OutboundFlight said:

Now, this is all implying Lucas’ vision of the PT. It could have been set from an entirely new character’s adventures / struggles and not Anakin, in which case maybe he could have showed up in the first film and then been seemingly killed. But as long as the trilogy is about Anakin’s fall or Obi-Wan’s failure, I don’t think you can thematically justify keeping the plot twist.

Well, yeah, I guess in my hypothetical PT it wouldn’t have been about Anakin’s fall any more than the OT is about Lando reforming himself as an honorable man. Anakin would have been the equivalent of Han in the first two (if Han had died on Bespin), with Obi-Wan being the clear protagonist (keeping with the “trio” idea, Obi-Wan = Luke, Anakin = Han, Luke’s mom = Leia).

But that’s getting pretty off topic for a “change one thing about each movie” thread. 😉

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TPM: Make Anakin 10 years older. No Jar Jar, ever!

AotC: Real chemistry between Anakin and Padmé.

RotS: When Vader rises from the operation table, in full armor, he lashes out at Palpatine (like in the comics)

ANH: Obi-Wan vs. Vader battle (something like the first half and very end of the recent fan remake)

TESB: A force-vision with Vader while in his meditation chamber.

RotJ: A short scene of the Bothans escaping with the information on the 2nd Death Star and the Emperor.

TFA: At the end of the film, Luke found seated on a floating boulder, meditating, while several other boulders
orbit around him.

TLJ: J.J. Abrams as director

TRoS: Thrawn returns 😉

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TPM: Don’t kill Maul
AtoC: Maul in, so no need for Dooku. As Anakin becomes stronger, so does Maul. Allows Palpatine to truly monitor which one is becoming more powerful.
RotS: Anakin kills Maul out of hatred, making him have an awakening that millions had to suffer at the hands of Maul, the Jedi are weak, thus the dark side can truly save Padme.
ANH: Obi-Wan holds onto Anakin’s old saber (Luke too timid to carry around some ancient weapon he doesn’t know how to use correctly), thus when Vader strikes down Obi Wan, Vader takes back his old light saber. Vader slices Obi Wans saber, Luke comes across it, now determined to learn how a lightsaber truly works, the ins and out, how to master it, hoping to avenge Obi Wan, and get back his fathers saber that Vader ‘stole.’
ESB: Vader toys with Luke by ditching the red saber for a bit during their duel. Instead continuing the fight with his old Anakin saber against Luke with a repaired Obi Wan saber. Since both saber colors are blue, it’s a symbolic way of showing a relationship; once from a time when Obi Wan and Anakin fought side by side. Now it shows that Luke is related to Vader.
RotJ: Insert cliche Wookiee planet idea instead of ewoks. Always loved the assault on the DSII.
TFA: Starkiller Base is disabled, not destroyed and instead the Resistance drives FO from it, thus securing control.
TLJ: 1-2 year time gap (anything to get away from instant “where we last left off” continuation). This time gap opens up so many storylines and character development to sprout.

The Rise of Failures

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TPM: ???

AOTC: There’d be no indication of Dooku being a Sith, up until Anakin and Obi-Wan’s fight with him.

ROTS: Vader’s “Nooo!” is more similar to in the Disney canon comic series from Charles Soule, but the “Nooo!” from the actual film is generally kept.

ANH: Opens right after the Death Star fires on Scarif during Rogue One, we get Vader’s hallway rampage as visual storytelling for how much he’s grown since ROTS and for him being Palpatine’s enforcer. Then the Rebels escape, leading right into the Star Destroyer chasing the Tantive IV.

ESB: Palpatine’s appearance would be consistent with ROTJ (Adywan’s version still doesn’t really look right)

ROTJ: ???

TFA: Endor would be the capital of the Republic, not Hosnian Prime.

TLJ: Reveal Palpatine at the end, after the scene with Temiri Blagg. Pryde goes to Exegol and shows him a hologram of Snoke’s corpse. Palpatine, on his throne, though his face is initially unseen, is impressed; “The boy is ready.” We see Sith acolytes and vats of deteriorated Palpatine clones, one of which closely resembles Snoke. The machine picks up Palpatine off of the throne and pulls him closer to the holographic light. “The boy’s sacrifice will soon be complete.” The lightning flashes bright, we see his face for the first time since ROTJ, now corpse-like, his eyes empty, his body frail, his skin pale. He smiles sinisterly. Hard cut to black, and cue credits.

TROS: Replace Kijimi with Coruscant.

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I’m interpreting this as the one large or small change that would most improve each film in a vacuum.

TPM: Tweak Jar Jar’s character so that he is a jaded observer of the galaxy and a cynic of everyone in it.

AOTC: Anakin and Padme go to Tatooine out of a shared concern for Shmi due to Anakin and Padme having worked together to free her and many of Tatooine’s slaves some years prior, only to find that she is dead by the time they get there. Anakin’s murder of Tuskens is re-contextualized as a dream.

ROTS: After Anakin saves Palpatine from Mace Windu, Palpatine immediately sends Anakin on the mission to defeat the Separatists on Mustafar. As Anakin kills the Separatists Palpatine initiates Order 66, and the trauma of the massive death toll sends Anakin over the edge. He realizes the situation is out of his control but his final choice isn’t made until Obi-wan arrives to confront him, assuming the worst.

ANH: Instead of a speeder, Luke takes his new, souped-up Skyhopper out to search for R2. He reluctantly parts with the beautiful craft in Mos Eisley, which makes his disgust at Han’s ugly ship all the more dramatic.

ESB: Give Han and Leia a shared experience they discuss during the film where they expressed their attraction and even had a relationship until Han got cold feet regarding the Rebellion.

ROTJ: Leia is not confirmed to be Luke’s sister. ‘The other’ Yoda mentioned in ESB is explained to be a vision where he sensed another Skywalker defeating the Emperor, and Yoda postulates that Luke could have a twin. Obi-wan says that this is possible, and Luke suspects that it is Leia which Obi-wan neither confirms nor denies. The vision is fulfilled as Anakin destroys the Emperor and it is left unclear what Luke believes at the end.

TFA: The First Order is just the Imperial Remnant using their old battle-worn tech and the Death Star prototype seen in ROTS with the equatorial weapon. This weapon is still just a skeleton of a station which has only a hyperspace ring, but it is sent to crash into the Hosnian system. The Resistance dogfights through the structure in an attempt to find a central generator to destroy the station, but it’s so incomplete that the mission fails and the station crashes into the Hosnian system, destroying the capital.

TLJ: Canto Bight is located aboard the city-ship Supremacy. Finn and Rose infiltrate the ship and go to the onboard casino in an attempt to find out how Hyperspace tracking works from the scientist who developed the tech…which the First Order keeps near for security (Notes of Jango Fett, it rhymes). They find DJ instead and he betrays them, but Rose gets a good look at the tracking room and realizes that a part of the Supremacy is permanently in Hyperspace in order for the tracker to work. Finn gets the message out to Poe who relays it to Holdo, who then in full knowledge of this weakness uses the Raddus as a Hyperspace ram.

TROS: Get an actual writer.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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TPM: The face and voice of Sidious’s hologram are completely distorted so Dooku could be a credible red herring for the identity of Maul’s Sith Master.

AOTC: Instead of being a generic pacifist, Padme shares Anakin’s belief that a stronger, more aggressive chancellorship is necessary to prevent tragedies like the ones they experienced in TPM. They bond over this, and their relationship will eventually sour when Padme realizes Palpatine’s going too far and Anakin doesn’t.

ROTS: Include Yoda communing with Qui-Gon.

ANH: Don’t reveal that the Empire’s new weapon can destroy planets in the opening crawl. Let it be a horrible surprise teased then eventually revealed with Alderaan’s destruction.

ESB: Um, gee, I dunno…Dash Render cameo in the Battle of Hoth, maybe?

ROTJ: A more age-appropriate Hayden Force ghost not made from recycled footage.

TFA: Cut out the references to Han and Leia being separated. They suffered a tragedy with their son’s fall, but faced it together.

TLJ: Once Carrie passed away, rework the ending to delay Luke’s death until IX.

TROS: Does “scrap the entire script before filming” count as one thing?

Co-author of STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER - THE TEAM DALE REWRITE

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Does “scrap the entire script before filming” count as one thing?

Well that’s not far off from what they did. I always compare the last minute script to Jurassic Park III which actually scrapped its entire script weeks before filming and wrote a new one as they were shooting. The weirdest part is the finished film is actually really good. Shame the same can’t be said for TRoS.

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Anakin Starkiller said:

Does “scrap the entire script before filming” count as one thing?

Well that’s not far off from what they did. I always compare the last minute script to Jurassic Park III which actually scrapped its entire script weeks before filming and wrote a new one as they were shooting. The weirdest part is the finished film is actually really good. Shame the same can’t be said for TRoS.

A fellow JPIII defender? Welcome to the club 😁.